‘Love is a dark and shifty creature. We cannot all live in a fairytale,' warns Lady Russell (Geraldine Alexander) in this bold, enoyable and often exhilarating updating of Jane Austen’s final novel. The heroine Anne (Lara Rossi), who eight years previously was persuaded to reject the love of her life, Captain Wentworth (Samuel Edward-Cook), because his prospects were uncertain, is a Cinderella figure overlooked by her family...Austen was way ahead of her time, which Jeff James and James Yeatman really highlight with a staging that strips away the bonnets, transposes the action to the present day and has a playlist that includes Nicki Minaj’s Starships and Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt’s Super Rich Kids...When I tell you that the visit to Lyme Regis features a bikini foam party, those devoted to crinoline may take fright. Do not fear... A small sign of how unexpectedly invested the audience became in the production – which in less capable hands might simply have replaced 19th-century trappings for those of 2017 – is that when Anne and Wentworth eventually kiss there was spontaneous applause. ...this textured evening is deliciously irreverent and relevant.